Perhaps it was because we had been to such spectacular places already. I am sure that the crummy hotel didn’t help; stay away from the Albergo Arena.
That said, there were good parts to Verona:
The Verona Amphitheatre is fantastic. Built of red stone in AD 30, it is in such great shape it is still used today, to stage plays and operas.
The best passeggiata (night stroll) of our time in Italy was here in Verona. Talk about fashion on display, the girls wearing today’s hottest fashion walk the streets to catch a window-glimpse of tomorrow’s must – have items. We had so much fun people watching that we walked the triangle course three times. Better than the Via del Corso in Roma.
A kind of cool fort with bridge across the river, the Castelvecchio is simple yet has good views and interesting architecture with crenelated walls. You know, the typical “up and down” pattern, so you could hide behind the “up” then shoot out from the “down.”
One of the biggest tourist attractions is the totally fake Romeo and Juliet balcony, at Casa di Giulietta. So Shakespeare made up the whole story; who can fault the people of Verona from capitalizing on our love lost fantasies? There it is: a balcony in a side alley, where Juliet appeared. The poignant part is all the love notes and wishes that people tape to and stick into the brick walls.
We had a wonderful dinner down by the river, at a small restaurant, the Trattoria Vecio Mulin, a place we just happened upon.
I got the song “My Sharonna” stuck in my head, but changed it to “M-m-m-m-y Verona!” Bup ba budda bump, budda bump, budda bump.
I could not shake it the whole time we were here.